The Coffer Dams - Kamala Markandaya (Blog Tour & Review)

Date of Reading: 10/10/2020

Author: Kamala Markandaya

Publisher: HopeRoad

(Re)Publication Date: September 30, 2020

Rating: 3.5/5

(This review is part of the blog tour organised by Random Things Tours)

About the book:

Clinton, founder and head of a firm of international engineers, arrives in India to build a dam, bringing with him his young wife, Helen, and a strong team of aides and skilled men. They are faced with a formidable challenge, which involves working in daunting mountain and jungle terrain, within a time schedule dictated by the extreme tropical weather. Setbacks occur which bring into focus fundamental differences in the attitudes to life and death of the

British bosses and Indian workers. A timely reminder of the British contempt for Indian lives and for nature.

Review:

       This book has been a part of my TBR for a very long time. How can it not be? When it comes to dissertations, Kamala Markandaya is always a student's favourite. Her books are testaments to the struggles of an early India that is trying to find its foothold in a modern world. 'The Coffer Dams' is no different.

    The entire novel revolves around a massive dam construction project planned with a major British company. In alternating perspectives, the author captures the forced co-operation between the two nations and also the undercurrents within Indian society. While the British constructors perceive India with a mixture of fear and wonder, the natives, still recovering from the impact of colonisation, approach the foreigners with doubt and suspicion. Weary of each other, they proceed with caution, united only with their common aim.

    As the discourses of marginalisation gain more importance each day, Kamala Markandaya's attempts to give voice to the helpless tribals pave a new direction which is continued by contemporary writers. Without a doubt, 'The Coffer Dams' will forever remain as a classic of Indian English literature.

Meet the author:

Kamala Markandaya is a pseudonym used by Kamala Purnaiya Taylor, an Indian novelist and journalist. A native of Mysore, India, Markandaya was a graduate of Madras University, and afterwards published several short stories in Indian newspapers. After India declared its independence, Markandaya moved to Britain, though she still labelled herself an Indian expatriate long afterwards.

Known for writing about the culture clash between Indian urban and rural societies, Markandaya's first published novel, Nectar in a Sieve, was a bestseller and cited as an American Library Association Notable Book in 1955. Other novels include Some Inner Fury (1955), A Silence of Desire (1960), Possession (1963), A Handful of Rice (1966), The Nowhere Man (1972), Two Virgins (1973), The Golden Honeycomb (1977), and Pleasure City (1982/1983).